Can't Miss Cantrips

Welcome one and all to a brand new edition of Obscure Arcana, where we bring you spells of only the finest quality each and every week. Those of you who were around yesterday know that lately I’ve been thinking a lot about value this week, and continuing the trend of thinking small I’ve decided to provide you with a slew of fun and useful low-level spells. Specifically, a handful of new 0-level spells to renew your caster’s interest in cantrips.

Familiar Voice

You can allow your familiar to speak intelligibly. Your familiar gains the ability to speak and understand Common for the spell’s duration. Your familiar’s Intelligence score may still limit the value of what it has to say.

Hidbiddle's Revitalizing Touch

You can restore some life to a severely wounded creature. Hidbiddle’s revitalizing touch only affects creatures with 0 or fewer hit points which are already stable (they do not have the dying condition). The target immediately heals enough damage to restore it to exactly 1 hit point. If the target was previously unconscious as a result of his injuries, he immediately awakens.

Hidden Message

You can instill your performance with magical energies in order to communicate a short statement. As part of casting the spell, make a statement consisting of no more than 25 words. The next time you make a Perform check, each character who can see and hear you makes a DC 15 Perception check. Each character who succeeds the Perception check can hear and understand the message. Creatures that receive the message in this way are aware that the message was deliberately hidden in the performance. Depending on the content of the message, you may need to make a Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate check in order for the message to have its intended effect. You suffer a -5 penalty on any Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate checks made for a message delivered in this way.

Mage Arrow

You extend your hand, flinging forth a bolt of pure force energy. You fire a force projectile, which flies unerringly to a single target within range and deals 1 point of force damage.

Minor Deflection

You extend your will around the target, sheltering him from a magical attack. The target gains a +1 deflection bonus to AC for the spell’s duration. This deflection bonus only applies to touch attacks and ranged touch attacks made as part of a spell, spell-like ability, or supernatural ability.

Minor Intervention

You beseech your deity to intervene to protect the target. The target gains a +1 luck bonus to AC, as well as to the saving throw of your choice (Fortitude, Reflex, or Will) for the spell’s duration. Once the target has been attacked (regardless of whether or not he is hit) or has made a saving throw of the appropriate type (regardless of whether or not it was successful), the spell immediately ends.

No Escape

With a word, the strength of the target’s legs begins to fail, making it harder for him to flee. The target’s movement speed is decreased by 5 feet for the spell’s duration. Unlike most spells, the effects of this spell stack with itself, but it cannot be used to reduce the target’s movement speed to below half the normal amount. This spell only affects a creature’s base movement speed, and does not apply to any other forms of movement it may possess (such as a fly speed, swim speed, burrow speed, and so on).

Rude Awakening

You fill the target with energy, causing him to spring to alertness. The target immediately wakes up and becomes conscious exactly as though you had slapped him in the face. This ability only affects sleeping creatures, including creatures affected by magical sleep effects, and has no effect on characters that were unconscious for another reason (such as because they had taken nonlethal damage in excess of their hit points).

Squeeze Familiar

You can draw upon a greater amount of your familiar’s power for a short time, gaining a greater bonus from the bond that connects you to it. For the spell’s duration, you gain double the bonus offered by your familiar. This spell only doubles the bonuses offered by your familiar’s special ability, and does not affect any bonus the master gains from his familiar’s familiar traits (for example, the master of a bat familiar would gain a +6 bonus to Fly checks instead of +3, and the master of a weasel familiar would gain a +4 bonus on Reflex saves, instead of +2, but the bonuses to Perception offered by the alertness special ability would not be doubled).

This is incredibly taxing for the familiar, however, and for the spell’s duration, the familiar gains the exhausted condition, and even after the spell ends it is fatigued for 1 minute. This spell cannot be cast while your familiar is fatigued or exhausted.

Summon Least Animal

You summon a minor creature to aid you. This functions as summon monster I, except that the creature summoned must be of the animal type, of Tiny size or smaller, and have a CR of 1/4 or less.

If you cast this spell a second time while the first instance is still in effect, the first summoned creature immediately disappears, and the newly-summoned creature appears in its place. You cannot summon a creature into an environment which could not support it. If the summoned creature is slain, you may not cast this spell again for 1 minute.